


Die for me

by oldwickedsongs



Category: Boardwalk Empire
Genre: Addiction, Character Study, Friendship, Mentor/Protégé
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 13:42:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21303023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldwickedsongs/pseuds/oldwickedsongs
Summary: Benny and AR share a truth, and an end.
Kudos: 12





	Die for me

Benny was twenty-two when they lost Rothstein but it’s sort of a blur. He doesn’t like remembering it.

He was a stupid kid at any rate and it was before a whole lotta heroin and a whole lotta sleep. Naw, the part Ben likes to remember about the Bankroll before the bullet found him was the laughter.

He hadn’t noticed it before although as he gets older (and the debts from the Flamingo seem to mount like chips did before that old king) he realizes maybe Rothstein never had it until that year. It was desperate and full belly; it showed those false teeth like fangs and Benny laughed and understood why they called AR the Wolf. 

There weren’t needle marks in his arms, but there aren’t any in Benjamin’s either. It doesn’t mean anything because he understands now how that fire seems harder to catch and it never lasts. (Virginia doesn’t laugh like Inez did and nothing’s roaring anymore anyways, between the Crash and the War, and G-d were they stupid...)

There was one time too, a handful of weeks before Park Central happened when Meyer and Charlie had pulled AR into the office with Benny at the door and told him _enough_.

_No more drugs. No more poker. Reign it in. You are arsenic in ice water. Act like it. _

And Arnold had smiled- some cheap addict smile, promising he would. Maybe the boys believed him or just postured like they did (they weren’t boys anymore after all…) and after they were gone, Rothstein had pulled his coat jacket closed as if he was scraping to get something again he didn’t owe Benny…

…and he caught the kid’s eyes with that schoolboy face that seemed tired suddenly and laughed. Full belly and catching until Benny joined in because how could he not?

_Guess they told me, huh? Aren’t I a bad kid…_

Like it mattered. Like he’d change- he was Rothstein after all…

There was no one bigger.

He and Benny knew something they didn’t.

And funny but it’s not till the glass shatters in Ginny’s home from the bullets that Benny understands exactly what.

But it’s a blur.


End file.
